Our People

With a clear focus on Asia, DBS continues to grow stronger as we expand in this exciting region. This would not be possible without our most valuable asset – people. People are at the heart of banking and we are committed to being an employer of choice. We provide differentiated employee experiences, including learning and development, rewards and recognition, and a work-life balance.

Attracting and Retaining Talent

We want to make DBS a place where people can learn and grow while making a difference at work. Growing our own timber begins with attracting the very best talent across the region. By creating a great place to work, our employees will be motivated to recommend DBS as a prospective employer. In 2013, we were able to attract highly qualified individuals for over 40% of vacancies through staff referrals.

The diversity of our people – in nationality, culture and background – is a source of strength. We also embrace gender diversity with women accounting for 58% of our workforce and more than one-third of our leadership positions. Six of our 19 most senior leaders are women.

More than one in three leaders at DBS are women

Building the Next Generation of Leaders

Our senior leaders are committed to building a strong leadership culture and take an active role in nurturing talent and the development of future leaders. We have a series of talent programmes to develop the next generation of leaders at all levels, from recent diploma and degree holders to senior employees. These structured development programme comprises training, experiential learning, mentoring and internal mobility.

As part of the process to nurture talent from within, we have in place an internal mobility programme since 2010. Staff are strongly encouraged to leverage opportunities provided by the programme to work across departments, businesses and countries. Employees holding corporate ranks of Assistant Vice-President and below who have worked in their current role can seek to be placed in a new role with two months’ notice. For more senior employees, the corresponding periods are three years and three months. In 2013, more than one-quarter of our positions were filled by internal transfers.